The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 06, 1991, Page 3, Image 3
Hindsight
American policy towards USSR ;
could have been cost-efficient ?
Those who study international affairs often argue about the '
morality of U.S. foreign policy. Do we have a national agenda? If
so, do we have the right to use any method to achieve our foreign
policy goals? To use the cliche, do the ends justify the means?
In the past 40 years, the United States agenda has been to prevent
the expansion of Communism. Period. To achieve this goal,
we have supported a rogues' gallery of dictators, from Chile's Augusto
Pinochet to Panama's Manuel Noriega to the apartheid regime
of South Africa. We lost 50,000 lives to save Korea from
Communism; another 58,000 in Vietnam. We spent trillions to
create the greatest military machine the world has ever seen.
Now, Communism is utterly dead (although the Chinese are late
for the funeral). Its death is not because of our support of antiCommunist
tyrants, nor to our expenditure in lives and dollars.
The Communism system collapsed because of its own fundamental
flaws. Some would argue that the USSR collapsed from the
expense of the arms race with America, but this race only
hastened the inevitable.
The collapse of the USSR is a wonderful thing, but it is also a
bitter moment when one considers what the U.S. wasted on a foreign
policy that is now just as anachronistic as the very word
"Communism." It is easy to criticize with 20/20 hindsight, but it is
quite ironic that all those Comsymp, pinko, bleeding heart liberal
hippies had a point after all.
The world is rid of Communism. We've still got global poverty, !
illiteracy, crime and ethnic violence, but so what? We can blow
Baghdad to hell and back and the Reds are begging for mercy. j
Did the ends justify the means? :
>
DIVIDE OR DIE
1
Monday on Viewpoint
P
- Liberals and the new Newspeak 0
t<
- Columnist Brian McCarter uses lots of big words v
c
- Outraged readers write more spiteful letters a
?J is
Gripe of the Week g
ri
USC is paying $200,000 for the installation of an
access-card system in the Towers and Barnwell. Is the u
dubious increase in safety worth this cost? Students living
in these dorms will be locked out if they forget their I.D. N
cards or if the cards don't have the right magnetic coding. tl
Crime is a big problem, but this seems to be an expensive
and inconvenient way to help. u
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1GAMECOCK 5
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n<
Religious gi
There has been a lot in the news lately
Toups, mostly religious, trying to tum
pinions into public policy. The abortioi
jsters in Wichita, Kan. and the censor
/ould like certain books removed from
urriculums and libraries being the most
nd obvious examples.
These groups, I think, fail to realize Ai
5 a very diverse country where certair
oms must be allowed, whether it be reli
ultural, sexual orientation or whatever, b
roup has a right to decide for all, especit
riigious grounds.
This is not meant to bash any religio
se it as an example of how some small j
y to affect public policy on matters 01
/here they feel they are absolutely in the
tony of the people in religious groups
ley have the inside track on the God pU
/ay in which He/She wants us to behave
le/She wants us to read and who He/She
s to look for for earthly guideness ? i
le group in question.
For example, I'd like to paraphrase on
ious leader who wanted to rid his *
ublic schools of such books as Catcher
\ye and Huckleberry Finn. Speaki
Catcher, he said something to the effect
le liberal argument for the book is that
jflection of real life then we (whoever t
hould reverse the clock and take Americ;
Km
JSC garages
telp students
i the editor:
I firmly believe the price for a
irking sticker in the new parking fi
irage is not unreasonably expen- !
ve at $120 per semester. If you
irk in a Columbia parking meter To I
hours a day, 5 days a week for A
> weeks (one semester), you will wdl
ly about $150. sho
coui
There are very few of us who they
lend only 4 hours a day on cam- for I
as, so even my example is an ties
aderpriced one. What I am trying ders
? say is USC student parking at ling
20 is really cheap and allows stu- Mai
jnts (who, like myself, have vir- Wil
tally no income) to park on cam- T
us. Garage parking is more ex- unli
CIIMYC, UUl 10 0L111 1V/00 tsAJA/lldlW WUI
lan metered parking. taxp
fere
Yes, I park in a garage, but I am opti
3t one of the "elite" as Lynette taxe
heely would call me. I just appre- Can
ate the fact that I can get on aga
impus and find parking at ANY crea
me without having to park in onlj
gypt. but
few
Also, one must remember that a a re
arking garage costs a lot of mo- L
ly and will cost a lot to insure. ^ v
SC probably will not make any ciai
/V o
1 I ; /
'nunc clirmlH m
VF kJllVfMtVt JI.Ji.JI
about
t their
S To DENNIS
school SHEALY
recent ?
a % C \ A
>- 'D merica
i free
to a time when its society reflected stroni
'gious, morality.
0 one And when, pray tell, was that? Well-meani
1 y on groups, whether they be religious or moral vi
guards or just plain old bigots, seem to thi
n' 1 they know exactly what America needs whei
fFf U?h personally think America could care less. Mi
ai people just want to live their lives without hi
' ing to worry about breaking the law when tli
* think, read certain books, or make decisions i
m* e out their lives that are private.
, what r
wants Beliefs or lifestyles of any sort are persoi
isually things and should be kept so, you can't ma
people live by what you believe. It has alwa
e reli- been my opinion that I should live my moi
state's social and intellectual life the way I see fit a
in the if the supreme being has problems with it, 1
ng of find out about it at said supreme being's leisu
that if It's no one's business what I do as long
it is a it's OK with me and doesn't harm anyone e
hat is) (I and my fellow Satan worshippers will
a back ushering in the age of the anti-Christ in 1
ETTERS fof HE EC
ney irom mat Duilding until it is county hog trough
east 10 years old. vote in the special
Matt Burch year. The sales tax
Engineering junior the other sales tax,
any form of educat:
tudents must tfiZtVl&Z
I j a you to vote; it only
ght new tax to be drafted into tl
Voter registration
the editor: your county court h
dmost all university students *'0,in ^
I be 18 by November, and
uld register to vote in the _
nty, state and country where Kr.O-lVlll
r are eligible. It is most urgent
those in the 13 (unlucky) coun- f*pol QHC
of Abbeville, Allendale, An- ^ Cell illld
;on, Berkeley, Bamberg, Dar;ton,
Dillon, Edgefield, Lee, To the editor:
lboro, Newberry, Saluda and After reading R
liamsburg. letter in the August
he reason these counties are Gamecock. I co
lcky is their respective county whether I should 1
ncils want to waste more of the lief that USC sorrn
layers' money on a special re- him to buy those
ndum, again, on LOST (local or whether I shoul
on sales tax) to increase sales more people on a
;s by 20 percent. SCAT (South believe the same th
olina Association of Taxpayers) Mr. Holmes adi
in opposes the cruel tax in- of the "more eco
ise, which will discriminate not paper cup" over
f against the poor and elderly, Styrofoam cup. Hai
also against college students, his homework, Mr.
of whom own big farms to get realize that papei
bate. ecologically-sound
et me urge students to register Styrofoam. It can't
ote, because the county politi- cause of the wax-c<
as think only those at the
*
V . -. %.
ind business
coming weeks with the sacrificial virgin tofu, a
ncopy of Huckleberry Finn and lots of wine;
Beelzebub will be the designated driver of
course).
It's not my place to make laws abridging
? other people's freedoms, everyone is free to believe
or do anything they like as long as it
? doesn't inhibit or hurt me or anyone else.
^er It's beyond me why certain groups think a
book or an opposing idea is actually going to
ing harm society; it's even farther beyond me how
in_ they rant and rave so much that they sometimes
[nk get their way. If people raise their children in
n j their system of beliefs, then don't they have
ost enough faith in their children? Don't people
lv_ think their kids will be strong enough not to be
iey corrupted by a book or by not pledging allegiance
to the flag or not praying before class?
If people want others to act a certain way,
ial then be an example for them; if they choose not
ike to follow your example, then it's their choice.
iyS Children should not have to suffer in their edual,
cation because of the moral warfare of adults,
nd And besides, with the gloom and doom reports
I'll on education these days, it seems people would
re. be happy their children are reading in the first
as place.
Ise I'm not saying my theory is necessarily the
be best one in the world, but it's a good one for
lie living with your neighbor in peace.
)ITOR
i will bother to degrade in a landfill and it's not
referendum this exactly the cleanest product to
increase, unlike manufacture,
will not go for . Mr. Holmes doesn't want to
on- make any of us feel guilty for usjre
students that ing a Styrofoam cup; he just wants
>es not register to make those "images of a planet
' registers males fun 0f people turning blue" go
le armed forces, away. His solution: Make USC
is in, or near, stop selling him Styrofoam cups.
iouse. I have some advice for Mr. HolHarllee,
CPA mes. If you're really concerned
SC Class of '55 abour our environment, don't use
Styrofoam OR paper. Use an Ecogr\ri|y
Mug. Not only are they the most
ecologically-sound alternative because
they're REUSABLE, but
WC1 they're only two bucks and your
drinks are cheaper if you use the
Eco-Mug instead of the Styrofoam
ichard Holmes' or paper cup.
30 issue of The Mr. Holmes needs to realize that
uldn't decide the reason USC still sells Styroaugh
at his be- foam cups is because people still .
ehow is forcing buy them. This past year, just ab- ;
Qt\rrnfnam />imc mir pvflrvthino in lh#? Hinina halk
UiJIVlV/UIll vupo J -""O " Miv UIII'II^ maau
d cry that a lot was disposable. After students
impus probably started complaining about this !
ing. waste problem, the Eco-Mug, plas- '
locates the use tic bowls and plastic baskets were ;
logically-sound introduced on campus. The only
the use of the way to make that image of a planet I
i he been doing with people turning blue go away .'
Holmes would is to realize we must move towr
is hardly an ards REUSABLES rather than ;
I alternative to more "ecologically-sound"
be recycled be- disposables.
jatings, it won't - Dana Caulder ,*
Chemistry junior